


stay awake (don't rest your head)

by rooftopkisses



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Cute, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Humor, M/M, andrew and neil are both IdiotsTM, at least that was the prompt but really this is just andrew and neil at palmetto, i ALWAYS forget i'm going to have to title things and um, not a single braincell between the lot of them, sleep deprived idiots, yeah it's song lyrics from mary poppins lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25095862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rooftopkisses/pseuds/rooftopkisses
Summary: Neil and Andrew are three days into Finals Week (aka Hell Week) at Palmetto. Will they make it through unscathed?
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 20
Kudos: 170
Collections: All For The Game Bingo 2020





	stay awake (don't rest your head)

**Author's Note:**

> hewwo 🥺 this ended up being the only piece i wrote for the AFTG Bingo, BUT i am so happy i got to write this and collaborate with fornavn on tumblr 🤗🤗 there will be a link to their art below--make sure to reblog!
> 
> As for me, kudos and comments are always appreciated 😇 i hope you enjoy this fun little one shot :)

“Don’t put any milk in mine. It will just dilute it.”

Neil nodded. Any other day, he would have been shocked that Andrew didn’t want his coffee as sweet as could be, but finals week was kicking both of their asses.

He poured two to-go cups, added sugar to Andrew’s, and the couple made their way back down to the study room.

Neil hadn’t had a proper night's sleep all week long. Sunday, he wrote an oral presentation and stayed up late trying to memorize it so he didn’t get docked for relying too heavily on his notecards. Tuesday, he had to sit through two exams: Spanish 101—one part oral, the other part written—and an English final that required him to write a typed three page paper on a prompt he didn’t get until the class started.

His third (and last) day into finals week, and his strict diet of coffee and no more than six hours of sleep each night was starting to catch up to him. Today, he had his Math final—and Andrew had one for his Intro to Law class. 

Andrew and Neil sat down at the study table and opened up their respective textbooks.

“Pencil,” Andrew grunted, opening his brown pencil case and grabbing a pen for himself and a #2 pencil for Neil.

The eraser bit had been snapped off, but Andrew quickly produced a pink pearl eraser from his bag and set it down on the table as a replacement.

Neil took the pencil from Andrew, careful not to poke himself, and strewed out several sheets of blank scratch paper. 

“I have to do fifteen problems in ten minutes. Time me, okay?”

Neil took a large gulp of his coffee and got to work.

Math had turned out to be one of his best subjects. His test this afternoon was for Calc II, and mostly had to do with finding multiple ways to solve a single problem, which he was pretty good at—it just got hard sometimes remembering the various rules that came with each method. 

His hand was starting to shake and his eyes stubbornly wouldn’t stay open for longer than a couple seconds; his eyelids drooping continuously as he slowly ran through his set of problems.

He glanced up at Andrew, who was writing in his moleskine notebook and seemingly doing alright.

Neil forced his eyes back to his own paper but couldn’t retain a proper grip on his pencil.

The coffee wasn’t working. His eyes closed once more and his head slowly lowered onto the table.

He would just take a short power nap. No big deal.

He let his forehead rest against the wood and breathed in deeply through his nose.

He felt a hand on his back.

It was gripping the material of his shirt tightly. _It was gripping the material of his shirt tightly?_ The hand began to tug harshly. _The hand began to tug harshly. Wait. That can’t be right._

Andrew yanked Neil up by his back, the chair wobbled backwards, and Neil came to stumbling as he hit the back of the chair.

He shot an accusing look at Andrew.

“Stay awake,” was all that he said.

“I can’t,” Neil whined.

Andrew rolled his eyes, “You have to, you only have thirty minutes left to study.”

Neil contemplated that for a moment.

“Slap me in the face,” he said.

“What?” Andrew asked, incredulity creeping into his voice.

“I need to stay awake. Slap me.”

“No.”

“Yes, Andrew, it’s a yes just do it.”

Andrew contemplated that for a moment.

“Only if you slap me too.”

It was Neil’s turn to ask—

“What?”

“I’m just as tired as you are.”

“Okay,” Neil nodded his head in agreement, “Do me first.”

Neil inhaled deeply and watched as Andrew’s hand rose. He held his breath and braced for the impact. Andrew’s hand hit his cheek with an audible _SLAP_ and Neil fought not to flinch. 

It stung a bit, but the pain quickly subsided. He shook out his head and arms, letting his tension and nerves wash away.

“Did it work?” Andrew asked.

“I don’t know,” Neil shrugged, “maybe.”

“Do me now.” Andrew said.

Neil didn’t want to hit Andrew. He would never ever want to hurt him in any way—purposely or accidentally—but he knew Andrew felt the exact same way about him, so if Andrew could do it then so could Neil.

Neil brought his hand back and used all his might as he whipped it forwards and quickly made contact with Andrew—another harsh _SLAP_ echoing off the study room walls.

Andrew grunted. He reached up to rub his cheek, then extended his hand and gently rubbed his thumb against where he hit Neil.

“Is it red?” Neil whispered.

“Yeah,” Andrew nodded. “Twenty more minutes to study. No excuses.”

They turned back to their work like nothing had happened.

Neil whizzed through his problems and was actually feeling pretty good about himself. He checked his answers in the back of the book and found only a few mistakes that he could easily correct in the next go. He brought a blank sheet to the top of his haphazard stack of papers, and outlined another set with ten new problems. 

But just like a sugar rush, an adrenaline rush can only last so long. The effects of the face-slap quickly wore off, and Neil found himself crashing.

He was drifting off again, and this time, when he looked over at Andrew, the blonde didn’t seem to be in any better shape.

Neil groaned and crossed his arms on top of the table in defeat. He smiled slightly as he watched Andrew fight not to fall asleep; his elbow propped on the table and his chin in the palm of his hand. He wrapped his other arm across Neil’s shoulders. Neil turned his head so his non-injured cheek could rest on top of the worn-out fabric of his sweatshirt. He knew Andrew wouldn’t stop him from falling asleep this time, but rather that he would be right behind him.

Ten minutes. A ten minute nap… then he would go take his final…

Zzzzz

***

Andrew woke up to a yelp. It seemed his phone alarm had scared his boyfriend. He turned it off, and the two boys quickly packed up their things and ran out of the study room.

They ran from the Tower to campus, and, luckily, made it to their respective classes in the nick of time. His Intro to Law final required “quantitative reasoning”, so it wasn’t as simple as just memorizing a bunch of facts and filling out a scantron. While Neil studied for Math, Andrew had been working on giving explanations for how he would respond to the “real-life scenarios” his Law textbook gave him.

His final ended an hour and some odd minutes later, and he headed back up to the dorms, as that’s where he and Neil had planned to meet up afterwards. 

It was the last final of the week for both of them. The semester was officially over.

Andrew plopped onto his bed, thankful that this hellish week of chaos was finally through. None of the Monsters had fared particularly well, as Kevin and Aaron stressed over their grades—both of them too anal to recieve anything less than a 4.0—and Nicky had spent the week trying to ~~smother~~ mother everyone to death. Being an Education major, he had finished up his classes the week before, since he only had to give presentations or turn in projects—he didn’t have any written finals. So, much to Andrew’s dismay, he spent the week flailing around trying to “help” by offering them homemade chocolate chip cookies or warm blankets fresh out of the dryer.

The front door clicked open and Andrew couldn’t help but let out a huge yawn just as Neil came in view. 

Standing in the doorway of their room, Neil yawned contagiously after seeing Andrew’s.

Neil made his way to the bed, stopping before pulling the covers back and silently asking a question. Andrew nodded his head, and Neil slipped into bed, resting his head on Andrew’s shoulder.

Andrew wrapped his arm around Neil’s stomach. Neil layed a quick peck on Andrew’s neck, before closing his eyes. Andrew followed suit, and in no time at all the couple fell asleep.

They slept through Kevin returning to the dorms and showering, they slept through Aaron and Nicky playing video games in the front room; they even slept through Allison barging in with a quick “Show me,” to Nicky, and the pair whispering to each other right in front of the bed they slept in, as Allison took a picture of the two boyfriends all cuddled up together with matching bedhead.

They slept for fifteen hours, and when they woke, they kissed lazily for a bit before immediately taking another nap.

**Author's Note:**

> the amazing art that inspired this fic: https://fornavn.tumblr.com/post/622821912054251520/college-au-for-the-aftgbingo-rooftop-kisses-has Go Reblog! :)


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